Mozambique pledges to help Sudan rebuild from war

KHARTOUM, Oct 9 (AFP) — Visiting Mozambican Foreign Minister Leonardo Santos Simao pledged here Thursday that Mozambique and the African Union would contribute to Sudan’s reconstruction when the 20-year civil war ends.

Santos, who also chairs the African Union’s executive council, added that his country “is willing to take part in the monitoring mechanism which will be established in Sudan after peace is reached.”

The Sudanese government and the southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army have made dramatic progress during negotiations in Kenya toward ending the war.

Santos, speaking at a press conference with his Sudanese counterpart, Mustafa Ismail, said talks between the two focused on cooperation in political, economic, commercial and cultural fields as well as on regional and international issues.

The pair welcomed an African Union Maputo summit decision to form an African ministerial committee to participate in post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Sudan, according to a joint communique disributed at the press conference.

Both Mozambique and the African Union, he said, “will contribute to the reconstruction and development in southern Sudan” once the war is over.

The two sides signed a framework agreement establishing a joint ministerial commission for consolidation of bilateral relations in all fields of cooperation, the communique added.

Ismail said that during his recent visit to New York there had been an agreement for “a monitoring force, not a peacekeeping one” to be sent to Sudan after a final peace agreement is concluded.

He was commenting on reports in Khartoum newspapers Thursday of a British proposal to the UN Security Council to send a peacekeeping force to Sudan.

“An international monitoring force is being proposed to monitor implementation of the peace accord and the accompanying ceasefire agreement,” Ismail said.